EXCLUSIVE: Do fans hold the key to the vote in Scotland?

FOOTBALL could hold the key to keeping Scotland in the United Kingdom – but time is running out.

If Scotland vote yes to independence, Celtic may not be able to play in England [GETTY]

That’s the view of one of Scotland’s leading competition lawyers, who tells Sunday Express Sport that the carrot of Celtic, Rangers and the country’s other top teams playing south of the border would hand the ‘Better Together’ campaign 100,000 more votes at a stroke.

A Yes vote, in contrast, would effectively end any possibility of Scottish clubs playing in the English leagues.

Eoghainn Maclean, a lawyer specialising in competition and other commercial law at Ampersand, said: “If the Yes vote win then both FIFA and UEFA would then oppose any cross-border club transfers,” he says.

“The hopes of Celtic and Rangers of ever playing in England would be dead in the water.”

UEFA has already indicated that it would not oppose any move by the Old Firm to play their football in the England, while the Football Conference has made noises to suggest that both Celtic and Rangers would be welcome in the fifth tier of the pyramid.

The Premier League, Football League and Football Association, meanwhile, are strongly against any Scottish invasion.

But Maclean said: “Scottish clubs have a good claim in competition law to be admitted to the English game at some level.

“The English football clubs are sucking in all of the playing talent, all of the management talent. That’s what happens when you have unfair competition.